>> it is 1:00 here in paris. you are watching "france 24." are headlines this afternoon -- our headlines this afternoon. israel dramatically escalates its aerial offensive as palestinians continue firing rockets into israel. the security council is set to meet to discuss the crisis. ban ki-moon has warned that gaza is on a knife edge. kurds call on a hysterical nouri al-maliki to quit after he accuses israel of harboring terrorism -- terrorists. raw for reconciliation in iraq

forever -- prospects reconciliation in iraq are ever dimmer. he hopes to make good on his campaign promises by turning around two years of economic slowdown. we will speak to our correspondent. also coming up, threatening berlin andetween washington. in sports, argentina celebrates its semifinal big airy over the netherlands on penalties. it braces now to face germany in the world cup final. we will be getting all of the very latest.

it is just after 1:00 here in paris. our top story this hour has been the deadliest night in gaza so far. 25 people have died including eight members of a single-family with five children. this in the deadliest single bombing raids since israel began its offensive on tuesday. since then, the total number of targets hit inside gaza stands at 750. 76 palestinians have now died. meanwhile, more palestinian rockets have been fired toward israel overnight, including two that were shot down over tel aviv. israel says they have fired more since65 rockets from gaza tuesday. the iron dome defense system has intercepted at least 70 of those that were destined for major population centers. dailyens are now part of life. people in the central israeli city of tel aviv run. they have less than certain -- less than 30 seconds to reach a

bunker to shelter from rockets fired from the gaza strip. the israeli army say palestinian militants launched several overnight and early on thursday. others were intercepted by israel's iron dome antimissile shield. some way explosions off. we were really scared. out of the blue, we saw a missile debris land here near the petrol pumps. i was terrified. i thought i was going to pass out. >> there have been no casualties as yet on the israeli side, but the situation remains tense. in the south, the region hit hardest by rocket fire, some are losing patience as strikes on gaza are not enough. >> we have to go into gaza with all our might, organize a land, sea, air operation. that's what you need to remove him a -- remove hamas.

>> others argue conflict is not the solution. >> whether it is on their side or hours, we are not obliged to be friends or even talk, but we are not obliged to fight. peace is possible. israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, is under pressure from hardliners within his cabinet. he has warned that israel's operation protective edge could take time. >> for more on this serious matter, irris. we have been hearing the reports about the days of rocket fire toward israel, towards many of its biggest cities. what is the mood in israel as a result? >> i think israelis are, if i could say, one word is just fed up here they want the rocket fire to stop. they want the rocket fire over all of israel to stop. the reason casualties are low here is partly because of the iron dome missile intercept system and partly because

israelis have a pretty good early warning system. they are diligent about going down to bunkers. that keeps casualties low, but it makes for a very tense life. there is a price in terms of how people live, in terms of children going to school. some people said to me they feel they are living in a reality tv show, "hamas -- the operation." it just keeps coming back and the results are worse each time. >> what do we know now of the intentions of israel toward gaza? >> we know at the moment that it is intensifying its airstrikes and we know that the capital has authorized the mobilization of 40,000 reserve soldiers. 10,000 of those have been mobilized. i think that would buy you, in supermarket terms, a small land invasion. it would be a targeted invasion. it would not be a takeover of the gaza strip. it wouldn't be a cleaning out,

as they call it, of all the hamas militants am a and a finding of all the rockets. that kind of fighting would need larger forces. the israeli government and defense minister said today that is still on the table, still a possibility as we stand here. >> looking at this from the outside, possibly also the inside, listening to what you just said, one has the impression of something that is entirely cyclical. is what is happening now any different to what has happened in previous wars between israel and the gaza strip? inisrael left the gaza strip 2005. it took its soldiers and it left . there is a failure to deal with that, the fact that things haven't ended since then. israelis are frustrated by the 2005,hat, having left in there has been conflict with gaza in 2009, 2012, now 18 months later at this time.

it is cyclical and it is getting shorter and shorter in between. i have heard military analysts say that there needs to be a new way of looking at this, of how israel would have to deal with the fact that, on its border, there is an entity ruled by a militant group, now a number of militant groups there, who don't believe in its existence thomas are opposed to its existence, and will continue to fire rockets, and maybe there is another way to deal with this other than these cyclical conflicts with enormous cost in blood and treasure. >> looking at this conflict that has escalated over the last few weeks, there has been rocket ite, airstrikes, who started , i suppose, is my question? wanted this particular outburst of violence to start? i just interviewed two

palestinian and israeli analysts who said the same thing, which is that, this time around, it suited hamas, it was in their interests. that may not seem obvious from the outside, but they are weakened, isolated. they wanted to put themselves back on the map. war would dop gaza that for them. it is a betrayal of the citizens of gaza if that is true, is that analysis is right, and it may not be working out like that for them. they say israel is to blame. the cabinet was not united about this military option. they were divided. they've only gone to it after 48 hours and another 48 hours. that is the problem at the moment, that having begun it, they don't know how to end it. it is a problem for hamas and for israel. >> thank you very much indeed. we can now speak to our

correspondent in gaza. he joins us now. thank you very much for joining us. .ou are in gaza city tell us a little bit about the mood where you are. >> very tense, as you can imagine. there are several reasons. it is the third day of a pretty deadly israeli operation on the battered palestinian enclave. forces in gaza tell me that the death toll has risen to 85, most of those being civilians, some and hamas field level commanders, but the women -- children a heavy death toll. 600 wounded. that is according to palestinian sources. the level of instruction is not yet what it was during islam's last major operation in gaza, back in november of 2012.

it seems like israel is going about this incrementally, gradually, if you will. but people are exhausted and very nervous. it is extremely hot in gaza, way above 30 degrees celsius. this is ramadan. upple are fasting from sun to sun down because this is the holiest month in the calendar -- the muslim calendar. people fasting had to deal with a very hot temperatures and a very dangerous situation. most palestinians i've spoken to up to now come in that, at this at this- up to now, point, they had no choice. the situation was untenable, even if the only option left, initiating a conflict is a dangerous one for gaza, most of the palestinians tell me there was no other option available to them. >> this particular outburst of oflence was in the interest

or pursued by hamas and its military wing, but even the population of gaza, given all that has happened the last few years, given the fragility of their economy, given what the populations have gone through, you believe that they, too, are behind their political leaders? >> i just asked this question to a supporter of the top -- of fattah. he supports a rival which is the secular rival of hamas. there is a sort of imposed reconciliation on palestinians. everybody in gaza bonds together and supports what they perceive our acts of resistance. this man was explaining to me that the only point of passage between the palestinian enclave and egypt has remained shut down for the past few months.

the tunnels are no longer working. very few goods trickling into gaza. the situation is very difficult. hamas is unable to pay the salaries of its employees. no food, no basic commodities, no money. people, yes, most, if not a vast majority of those i've spoken to so far in gaza, are completely supportive of hamas and islamist and the other factions who are shooting rockets in these acts of what they call resistance. >> given that desperation may be behind the support of the people for this exchange of rocket fire over the last few days, what about the military capabilities of hamas over the long term if israel does go ahead with the ground war that we've been hearing about for the last few days? in what measure is hamas able,

militarily, to fight back? >> that, of course, is a mystery. hamas does not disclose its official numbers concerning its arsenal on the how many missiles it has, the range -- its arsenal, the missiles -- how many they have or their range. hamas chose to initiate this latest round of escalation, but because it has a few tricks in its hat, if you will. out ofcommandos swimming gaza and onto israeli territory. long-range missiles going almost all the way to 100 kilometers away from the gaza strip. obviously, hamas feels pretty confident about its military capabilities. there is no precise info in terms of what they are capable of. further developments will reveal

what they truly are. >> thank you very much. kurds have where rejected accusations made by the iraqi prime minister that they were harboring islamist tororists, going so far as describe nouri al-maliki as hysterical and urging him to stand down. nouri al-maliki said the northern region was a haven for islamist extremists, accusations that appear to dampen any prospects of sectarian reconciliation or political progress for the country. -- to talk more about it. tell us about this initial accusation on the part of nuri on maliki, that iraqi kurdistan was a haven for islamist extremists. >> we should note that this is not the first time that this kind of official accusation -- the iraqi army accused the kurds of alliance with

the islamic state and with we shouldups, but note that this group does not need a haven. it controls the territory starting from aleppo in syria to frontier.n this is not true. we should know also that the ards are not homogenous as population, with only one political aim or aspiration. we can find shia kurds, sunni kurds, and, among them, there are some jihadi kurds. among these jihadis, some are in the islamic state, but this doesn't mean kurdistan as a state or as an autonomous territory has been an islamist state. >> wassim nasr, thank you very much for having been with us. the government of narendra modi has revealed its first budget.

been described by a finance minister as a departure from the recent expenditure that have dragged down asia' largest economy. narendra modi was elected in may by a landslide, largely on the basis of promises that he would revive economic growth. asked whether he was likely to live up to expectation. expectations. let's keep in mind that, throughout his election campaign earlier this year, mr. modi focused rather strongly on the economy, promising in his manifesto at one point to lift hada out of the ditch it fallen into. having an inherited an economy facing its longest ever slow has in a decade, mr. modi been consistently warning indians to expect a bitter pill. this budget was a mixed bag. it failed to live up to the

expectations of the investors, but there are a lot of solid towards meeting promises made by mr. modi. tax breaks have been extended to power companies and to the power sector, along with the vegetarian -- with a budgetary allocation to meet his promise of electric supply. there are allocations towards building affordable housing, and towards greeting -- creating new smart cities, all of which are promises that he made during the campaign, but whether this budget will be the first step towards sustained growth of 7% to8% over the next three four years as promised by the government and parliament this morning is something that remains to be seen. >> it is time to take a look at what is grabbing headlines in the weekly news magazines. l" focusingder spiege

on the man of the hour, the coach of the germany football team. >> they call him "the player." you can see him this week with the german flags on his cheeks. "der spiegel" takes a closer look at the man pulling the strings. he likes to keep a low profile. you can see it almost seems like he is holding back a smile in this photo. germany's performance has been stellar in the world cup. all the papers agree on that. they beat the host, brazil, 7-1 in that semifinal. he is very modest about it. i understand what the brazilians feel. we lost at the same stage when we were hosting. i understand what the coach and fans feel. i know how hard and painful it is to digest something like that. you can see he is not that big of a show off. wonders, maybe

that is what the team owes its success to. maybe the team are competent, grounded, and 0-- thelso having a look at world cup in a special issue dedicated to conspiracy theorists. >> fifa has already fixed the world cup matches -- that's what some people believe. this paper says these conspiracy .heorists are everywhere it takes a look at historic conspiracy theories about the 11,assassination, september etc., as well as some modern conspiracy theories, such as "the simpsons," is behind the arab spring. and this one, this biblical and deadly flood that hit the ofntry in may -- it is proof god's wrath against

homosexuality. he was punishing humanity for the fact that a drag queen won that show. it is very serious about these conspiracy theories. it takes a closer look at why they exist, why they are so prominent, especially in our age of the internet and transparency . all this reveals very modern fears that we have in order to understand things we cannot explain, we will believe just about anything. >> one conspiracy theorist, nicolas sarkozy, who believes he is the victim of a political and judicial conspiracy, one that could foil his plans for a comeback. >> that's right. don't underestimate him. his rivals might think -- or thought that he was politically dead or out-of-the-way of the way because of all this trouble with the law, but not at all. you can see him on the front page. they call him terminator. even though he was placed under

formal investigations for those allegations of influence peddling, he is more combative than ever here he is not ready to give up. they are not thrilled about this. they say he is taking the opposition party hostage. they call this comeback of his and anna crenna stick -- his an anachronistic adventure. they do not want to see their future personified by the past. >> last week, nicolas sarkozy .ave an interview they were not convinced by the interview claiming that he was innocent. >> let's take a look at the front page. you can see the drawing of sarkozy saying "i'm innocent." he is not on strike. to awas in reference strike by entertainment workers threatening a bunch of festivals this summer. could this all be some kind of

machiavellian move to manipulate public opinion? week'smaybe he read this point." "le it talks about the art of manipulation and looks at machiavellian messages and tips. int," sarkozy"le po is not the only one taking a page out of this book, hollande is also in this issue. >> he is drawn a lot of criticism from parts of the left who accuse him of digging the graves of socialism. thee drew criticism from far part of the left ever since he took this social democratic turn, pro-business turn act in january. what if he was wrong about everything, they wonder, his decisions about growth, job creation, taxes?

the president has made some comments that turned out were not so true. the economy is back on track, public deficit will be reduced to 3% by 2013 or we will invert the unemployment curb by the end of the year -- if you want a break from all of this bad news, you could check out this week -- it takes a look at the history of superheroes. i recommend it. it says the first superhero was french you'd he was created by a writer in the 19th century. his name was mr. rudolph. he fought crime in paris. >> that look at the international weeklies. thank you very much. it is time for a look at the latest sports headlines. >> the 2014 world cup will see a germany-argentina final after a very different semifinal win for

argentines -- the argentines over the netherlands. the dutch and argentine struggled in são paulo against well-organized defenses. all square after 90 minutes, the game went to extra time and then penalties, in which one goalkeeper saved two kicks. it was a repeat of the final game in 1990. >> i think everyone was expecting messi and robben, who were very quiet. it was a game of very little chance for 90 minutes, probably 120 minutes. both chances falling late for argentina. the pen of the king was unavailable because all the substitutions had been used. rodriguez stepped up after saves had made two great to give argentina the chance to go through to the final. >> brazil have been trying to come to terms with the shock of tuesday past event -- tuesd

ay's defeat at the hands of germany. reflectpaper headlines not only disappointment, but anger, embarrassment, humiliation. >> it was indeed embarrassing and a humiliation. we feel that it could have been better. we could have had a better strategy, but it is what it is. it is football. things are unexplainable. we just have to keep going. >> germany didn't even have to work very hard. i think they only played 50% of what they could. if they had played 100%, they could have beaten us by 10 or 12. >> they were beaten by the german appetite and desire to win, and major blow to a country whose identity is so linked to that of their national team. with the world cup heading for its conclusions, europe's clubs have started their preparations for next season and that

involves showing off a new signing. last season's bundesliga tops gore -- top scorer. it has been a drawnout move from borussia dortmund. at pressurer years dortmund. i knew it was time to make the next that -- at borussia

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